Eastgate Center: A sign it's time to be saved

By JAMESON COOK

Thursday, May 9, 2013

A former Roseville man is preserving the city's history, one letter at a time.

Joe Niedzielski, 57, has purchased the "Eastgate Center" shopping center sign that will be removed today to make way for a new one at Gratiot Avenue and Frahzo Road. It comes after Niedzielski, years ago, saved the old Gratiot Drive In sign that he keeps at his St. Clair County home.

"It's another artifact that's gone by the wayside that needs to be saved from the scrap pile," Niedzielski said of the Eastgate sign. "I don't want to see things like this disappear forever."

Niedzielski in December paid $1,000 as the sole bidder for the sign on www.ebay.com offered by the center's owners, the Komer and Rosenberg families. Today, he will spend another $1,500 or so to have it dismantled by Phillips Sign & Lighting, a Harrison Township company.

Roseville Historical Society President Pat Chownyk praised Niedzielski's nostalgic act. The sign was erected about the time the center opened in 1954, replacing an airport that was known by several names -- Hartung, Packard Field, Gratiot and Detroit-Gratiot -- that also was the site of an annual carnival.

"It think it's great," Chownyk said. "He's trying to preserve the history of Roseville. For that, we have to be grateful. ... We have to preserve what we do have because people forget, and they don't care after a while, either.

"Joe is a dreamer. He's trying to preserve them the best that he can."

The incident is deja vu for Niedzielski. More than 28 years ago, on a Sunday night in October 1984, while others were celebrating the Detroit Tigers World Series victory, he dragged the large and heavy Gratiot Drive-In letters from its demolition site at Gratiot and Masonic Boulevard. He was allowed to store the letters in a city Department of Works facility for five years, then a friend's home for several years. They've been kept in a covered trailer on his property the past nine years.

Niedzielski told The Macomb Daily in 2004 he hoped to display the letters. But his plan has been stalled by obstacles to constructing a building on his property.

The Historical Society a few years ago tried to display the "G" at an event, Chownyk said. But it was too heavy and bulky to show off properly.

Niedzielski maintains his vision of creating a site to display both signs along with other memorabilia that he and others have saved from days gone by. But that requires more funds that he has, said Niedzielski, who works at the Chrysler Corporation factory on East Jefferson in Detroit.

"I'll store it until I find some time to restore it," he said. "I'd like to display it. Maybe that's a pipe dream.

"I want it to be like a Field of Dreams -- ' If you build it, they will come,' " he added, referring to the famous movie and line. "What people want is memories, something to warm you up when everything disappears."

Eastgate Center manager Sherrie Cohen said "it's nice" that Niedzielski will save the sign as the time has come for it to come down.

"It's a tired old sign," Cohen said. "It needs a major overhaul. It's not workable in today's environment."

A new sign will be constructed where an electronic flashing sign is located, Cohen said.

The elevated old sign has weathered storms, thrown rocks and bird collisions. Several of its letters have been replaced over the years, and a couple are in need of replacement, Cohen said.

The original bright yellow letters on dark blue background were later overlain with light-blue letters and a white background. Niedzielski hopes to peel them back to expose the original neon letters.

Two spheres that intersected each other and the lettering were removed at some point. The neon spheres flashed.

"It was quite a sign in its day," Niedzielski said. "It was a helluva sign. It had tons of neon."

That signage style represented the time-period it was erected. The use of neon and orbitals were popular in the 1950s, as the orbitals referenced the excitement and fear over atomic energy and the nuclear age.

The sign was there in Oct. 26, 1960, when John F. Kennedy spoke days before he defeated Richard Nixon for the presidency. Niedzielski recalled attending the campaign speech as a 5-year-old with his parents.

The center opened in the bedroom community during metro-Detroit's suburban boom, three years before Eastland Mall opened a few miles south in Harper Woods.

"It was a wonderful and great place," said Chownyk, who lived near 12 Mile Road and Gratiot. "I would take the bus there. It had Federal (Department Store), a dime store, a jewelry store, anything you wanted. Before it opened you had to go to Mount Clemens or Seven Mile and Gratiot."

Hundreds of thousands of motorists have driven past the sign on the often congested and cruised Gratiot throughfare.

The center's initial roster of shops also indicate the changing times. Federal was prominent but burned down in 1978. The Kmart that located in the same spot is now Kroger and TJ Maxx. Wrigley's supermarket and S.S. Kresge Co. were prime destinations for shoppers.

Cohen said a couple of original stores remain, such as Sherwin Williams.

The shopping center, which she said was the first strip mall in Michigan, has continued to thrive over the decades, Cohen said. There are vacancies at two small store locations, she said.